The Blood of Olympus
by Firestar1218
Summary: Now that Percy and Annabeth have made it out of Tartarus, the crew of seven are making their way towards Athens to stop the giants from waking Gaea. But in a twist of events, Percy is captured by the giants, and the crew must hurry to save him before it's too late.
1. Chapter I: Annabeth

**Hi guys. This is what I think The Blood of Olympus is going to be like. Since this is my first story, please forgive any mistakes or if you just hate my writing. Thanks and please review!**

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After the attack of the flying chicken ladies, Annabeth didn't think she would ever eat chicken again.

She was leaning against the rail of the Argo II as it sailed through the Ionian Sea, gazing at the sky and the water. The sunset really was amazing. She wondered what it would be like to have a normal life, to know where you would wake up each morning, to know that none of your friends or family would die because of a vengeful god or monster.

Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn't see the winged shapes making their way towards them. They were pretty far away, though. She squinted. They looked like…chickens. Okay, dangerous death chickens, with razor sharp teeth and claws.

Annabeth figured that the harpies would be easy enough to defeat, though they had a nasty temper. After all, they had battled much more dangerous creatures. She ran to Leo, who was at the helm, tinkering with some XBox controls. "Do you think you can handle those harpies?" She pointed to them.

Leo studied them. "Yeah, probably. I can use the ballistae or something. Maybe the special Celestial Bronze machine guns. But maybe you should call up Jason or Percy or somebody, just in case we need backup." He got the cannons ready. Annabeth hurried down to belowdeck, trying to figure out where her Seaweed Brain could be. As she was about to enter Percy's room, hoping he wasn't asleep, Hazel and Frank came up the stairs.

"Hazel! Frank!" she said, catching their attention. "We're under attack by harpies!"

"Okay. Just let me get my spatha." Hazel ran back to get her sword. Once she was back, they went back up to the deck.

As the harpies got closer, Annabeth could see that the harpies looked uglier than normal. Maybe they were a special ugly batch sent to attack them. There seemed to be an awful lot. Maybe a few dozen. They were screeching and getting ready to dive at the ship.

Leo aimed. He waited for the harpies to get in range, and shook the Wii remote to fire. The first shot took out about a quarter of the whole group. Now the remaining thirty-odd harpies took the hint and spread out to make less of a target. They dived, pecking at the mast and sail, grabbing at some random items on the deck.

"Hey! Get them away from the gunpowder and Greek fire!" Leo said as he continued to fire the ballistae.

Annabeth unsheathed her knife, and with Hazel and Frank, they ran at the harpies. Up close, she could definitely see that they were especially vicious. Their claws seemed to be leaking some kind of substance that she really did not want to touch. Hazel yelled and slashed a few to dust. Frank turned into griffin. Annabeth didn't stop to wonder about that. She stabbed one, and it disintegrated into dust. She sensed one behind her, so she whirled around, cutting it down.

Frank was grabbing harpies in his mouth and throwing them overboard. He flew up and knocked several out of the sky. But when the airborne harpies focused on him and dived, he wasn't able to avoid them all. He fell down back to the ship as a human, and landed in a small pile of…was that harpy bird poo? Annabeth wrinkled her nose in disgust and gagged. Ew. Hazel ran over to help him up. Then Annabeth saw a harpy prepared to dive at them.

"Hazel! Look up!" Annabeth shouted a warning. Hazel looked up, sweeping her sword at the sky. The harpy instantly exploded. While Annabeth was watching Hazel and Frank, a harpy had landed behind her. She turned around, but not quickly enough. The harpy knocked her knife out of her hand and was extending its talons to claw her when an arrow from Frank, now in human form, made it explode into dust.

Annabeth ran and picked up her knife. "Thanks, Frank!"

Hearing the commotion, Piper, Jason and Percy came up the stairs, saw the chicken ladies, and attacked. With their help, the crew managed to destroy or wound all the harpies, driving them away.

As soon as the last of them flew away, Percy came over to Annabeth. "Are you all right?" Percy asked her.

"Yeah, I'm okay. What about you?" she asked him.

"I'm fine. I just arrived, anyways. Right in the middle of dinner, too," Percy smiled. Just then, Piper ran over. From her expression, Annabeth could tell that something was wrong.

"What is it?" Annabeth asked.

"It's Jason. He's, well...You should see for yourself," Piper swallowed anxiously.

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"How bad is it?" Percy asked. The whole crew, except for Leo, who was steering the ship, was gathered in the sick bay, where Jason was lying unconscious, looking very pale.. He had been badly scratched by the harpies. The wounds were covered with a cloths, which were stained with blood and some kind of foul black substance.

"What's the black stuff?" Hazel asked.

"I'm not sure. My guess is that the harpies' claws were poisoned, but who knows?" Piper shrugged. She seemed to be testing the black stuff, but without success.

"Did you feed him some ambrosia and nectar?" Hazel asked.

"Some. It helped his fever a bit, and the flow of the black liquid has slowed down a little,"

Frank was looking over Hazel's shoulder. "I don't suppose any of you have met poisonous harpies before?" Everybody shook their heads. Annabeth walked over to the counter where Piper was.

"Here. Let me have a look at it." Annabeth took over. "Too bad we don't have a child of Apollo here. They would know what to do. Probably."

Jason mumbled in his sleep. Piper sat next to him and brushed his hair out of his face.

"I think you're going to need to shower. You stink. Like, a lot." Hazel wrinkled her nose at Frank.

Frank laughed. "Well, I didn't ask to fall in a bunch of poo."

"Come on," Hazel murmured to him. "I think we should give them some more space. After you're done showering, I'll meet you above deck."

They left the infirmary and went to clean the poo off of Frank.

"There's nothing we can do until we can identify the poison, which I can't seem to do," Annabeth said. "The best thing to do would be to let him rest.

Annabeth and Percy filed out of the sick bay. "Well, now that the chicken attack is over, you'd better get some rest. You don't look like you've gotten much sleep recently. Plus, you've been on watch all day today," said Percy to Annabeth.

"I guess I haven't been sleeping well lately," admitted Annabeth. "You know, the usual stuff, but with the added bonus of Tartarus."

"I know," said Percy in such a dark tone that it made Annabeth wonder what he'd been dreaming about. "Either way, you have to sleep sometime. I'll take you downstairs."

After eating a quick dinner, they went to their respective sleeping quarters. "Good luck with the dreams," Percy said.

Annabeth yawned. "You too." As Percy closed his door, she flopped onto the bed but couldn't seem to fall asleep.

After a while, Annabeth got up and opened her laptop. After she had lost Daedalus's, Annabeth had bought a new one and was trying to retype all of his ideas from memory. When she finally felt herself started to get sleepy, she climbed into bed and drifted off into an uneasy and restless sleep.

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RING! RING! RING! Annabeth woke at five in the morning to the sound of the alarm bell. She grabbed her knife and ran up to the deck. She stopped, confused. There weren't any monsters attacking. Why would Leo ring the alarm bell then? She checked the helm. Leo wasn't there. Neither was Frank.

As she made her way downstairs, she bumped into Piper. "What happened?" Piper asked through bleary eyes.

Annabeth shrugged. "I don't know. There aren't any monsters, as far as I know. I was just about to check on Leo. He's not at the helm. Maybe in the engine room?"

"Ok. I'll come with you. There's no way I'm going back to sleep now." The two girls went to the engine room. There they saw Leo, asleep with his head on the alarm button and some machine in his lap. It looked like a microwave with two legs and a cannon on top. Next to his head was an astrolabe and a crystal.

Annabeth went over to him and shook his shoulders. "Leo! Wake up!"

He jerked awake. "Wha-?"

"You fell asleep. What were you doing here anyway?" she eyed the contraption in his lap suspiciously.

"Oh, that? I was just fixing something." He shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry. Did I wake everybody up?"

"No." Piper spoke up. "I didn't see anyone else in the hallway. They must have been exhausted to be able to sleep through that noise." Despite having been woken this early, Piper looked well rested.

"Sorry." Leo apologized again. He yawned. "I think I'll sleep in my room until breakfast." When he opened the door, he bonked his head on the low doorframe. Annabeth and Piper could hear him cursing as he left.

"Do you know where Frank is?" Piper asked Annabeth.

"No. I didn't see him on the deck. Wasn't he supposed to be on watch?" Annabeth asked.

"Actually, I was supposed to take over in half an hour. I'll see if I can find him." Piper left the engine room. Alone, Annabeth wandered through the ship. She eventually went back to her room. With nothing to do, she opened Daedalus's laptop again.

After a while, she heard a knock on her door. "Come in."

Percy came in. "Where'd you get that from? I thought you lost Daedalus's computer," he said.

"I did. This is a new one. I'm hoping I can rewrite some of his ideas from memory."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Not so well. Only a couple of hours." Annabeth yawned.

"Well, I think it's time for a good breakfast. Are you going to come?"

Annabeth smiled and they both walked to the mess hall together. Piper was already there, eating scrambled eggs and pancakes.

"Hey Piper," Percy said, sitting down at the table.

Annabeth sat next to Percy. "Did you guys hear the alarm bell this morning?"

"The alarm bell rang? Wow. I didn't hear a thing," Percy ran a hand through his messy hair. "What happened?"

Annabeth explained what had happened with Leo and the alarm button. The rest of the crew eventually came in, and they all sat together and ate their breakfast.

"How's Jason?" Annabeth asked Piper, munching her pancakes.

"Still unconscious, though the wound seems to be looking better," Piper said. "He should be all right in a couple of days. Hopefully."

Hazel stood up. "Okay people. We need a plan once we get to Athens. We should be there in a few days at best. More likely, since our luck is really, really bad, we'll reach there in quite a bit more than a few days."

Annabeth said, "We have to be very careful in Athens. For all we know, the giants are luring us into a trap for their plan to spill blood on Mount Olympus." They had discussed this problem before, and Annabeth thought it was a very likely probability.

"You're right. We'll have to scout around," Percy said. He turned to Piper. "Piper, have you seen any useful images in Katoptris?"

Piper shook her head. "I tried, but the stupid blade wouldn't show anything at all."

"Maybe that means nothing bad is going to happen," Frank suggested hopefully.

"No, of course not. Something bad always happens," Leo said. "After all, what fun would a quest be without almost dying every five minutes?"

"I'll try again later," said Piper, ignoring Leo. "But the blade always shows something totally useless and depressing, so I don't know how it's going to help." They had discussed this problem before, and Annabeth thought it was a very likely probability.

"Well, we're going to have to figure out this problem later. I have to finish fixing the engine after it malfunctioned yesterday," said Leo, leaving the mess hall.

"I'll go with him. He might need some help," Piper left as well.

"I'll go back to guard duty," Hazel said.

"I'll do the watch after you," Annabeth volunteered.

"Okay. My shift ends in an hour or so," Hazel and Frank went up to the deck. That left just Annabeth and Percy.

"So…what are you going to be doing?" Annabeth asked Percy, secretly hoping he would stand with her on watch so they could discuss some things that Annabeth had been thinking about.

"I'm going to practice my swordplay. You could catch up on your missed sleep," He got up and kissed the top of her head, and then he left.

Annabeth sat there and stared at the remains of her eggs. She decided to follow Percy's advice.

In her room, she collapsed onto her bed and immediately fell into a dream-free sleep.

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**Reviews are much appreciated.**


	2. Chapter II: Hazel

**Here's the second chapter, Hazel's POV. **

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Hazel was at the helm where Leo was still steering the ship. "So where are we now?"

"We're off the west coast of Greece, near the Ambracian Gulf. We're going to have to follow the ocean until we get to Patra Agio. Then we'll go through a small channel or something to get to Athens. It'll take about half a week, with no delays or unexpected monster attacks," Leo said. "Which never happens, so maybe a week?"

"We've only got two weeks until the Feast of Spes. So we have a week in Athens to stop the giants?" Hazel said thoughtfully. "Knowing our luck, it'll probably take that long for us to stop them."

Just then, Frank came up the stairs. "Hey. So how close are we to Athens?"

"It'll take a week to get there," Hazel told him.

"A week, including all the monster attacks and delays," Leo corrected her.

"Anyways, Jason's awake now," Frank said.

"Why? What happened to Jason?" Leo asked, clueless. Hazel filled him in.

"Did they get the poison out?" Hazel asked Frank.

"I think so. The wound isn't black anymore, but the harpy's claws cut pretty deep. He's not going to be able to fight until it's healed."

"Ouch." Leo winced. "Well, I've got some work to do, steering the ship and all."

Hazel took the hint. "All right, we'll go. Who's on watch?"

"Ask Annabeth. I think she has the schedule." Leo kept his eyes on the horizon.

Hazel and Frank went to go find Annabeth and Percy. They stopped by the infirmary to check on Jason.

"How's Jason?" Hazel asked Piper who was still taking care of him.

"Fine. Just sleeping for now," Piper said, from his position next to her bed.

"Do you know where Annabeth is?" Frank asked.

"I think she's with Percy, but I have no idea where they are," Piper replied. Hazel and Frank left. They checked Percy and Annabeth's bedroom, but they weren't there.

"Do you think they could be in the pegasi stables again?" Hazel asked Frank, remembering the time Percy and Annabeth had spent the night there.

"Worth a try," Frank shrugged. When they arrived at the stables, they saw that Hazel was right. Percy and Annabeth were sitting above the clear bay doors, gazing at the ocean passing below them, talking quietly.

"Um…hi," Frank said awkwardly. Percy and Annabeth stopped talking and looked up.

"Oh, hi Hazel. Hi Frank. What are you doing here?" Percy asked.

"Leo told us you had a schedule of guard duty shifts," Hazel said.

"Oh yeah. Not that anybody uses it." Annabeth pulled out a piece of paper. "It's supposed to be Piper's shift, but since he's with Jason, I suppose Seaweed Brain and I can take over. Is Jason feeling better?"

"He's doing fine. Just resting a bit," Frank said.

"Okay. Come on, Percy." Annabeth pulled Percy up. "See you guys later." After they left, Frank and Hazel were left alone together. Hazel took the time to study Frank. He had grown so much since Epirus. He wasn't the sweet, slightly awkward looking boy Hazel had known before. Now he was muscular, tall, and strong, just like how a son of Mars should look.

"So…what do you want to do?" Frank asked.

"Hmm? Oh. I haven't eaten lunch yet. I'm going to grab a quick snack from the kitchen." Hazel replied. They went to the mess hall and took some apples, cheese, and bread. Then they sat at the counter and looked out a porthole in the wall of the ship while they ate. Hazel could see that this part of the Mediterranean was really polluted. The water was smoky and hard to see through. Pieces of trash floated around randomly, and she couldn't see any fish or other sea animals at all. She figured Percy probably didn't like that.

Frank cleared his throat. "So what are we going to do once we get to Athens? We never really did form a plan."

"I suppose we'll just have to see the situation and improvise as we go along," Hazel said.

"Do you think you'll see Arion again?" Frank asked.

"I don't know. Why do you ask? That was kind of a random question."

"Just wondering." Frank shrugged. Leo came in, grabbed and an apple and came over to their corner.

"We'll be stopping in a city near here, Preveza. I need some more supplies to fix up the ship," Leo informed them.

"Okay. When?" Hazel asked.

"We'll spend the night there and get the supplies in the morning." Leo said, already leaving. "I need to go tell Percy and Annabeth."

"Well, I'm going to go take a nap." Hazel yawned. "See you later." She got up and kissed Frank on the cheek. She smiled at the expression on his face.

As she was leaving the room, she bumped into Piper. "Hey, Piper. Why aren't you with Jason?"

"Leo didn't tell you?" Piper raised an eyebrow. "Jason's wound is all healed now. He's already out of the infirmary. Hopefully he'll be able to fight tomorrow, just in case we meet some monsters."

"That's great news," Hazel smiled.

In her room, she flopped onto her bed. She thought about their quest and the prophecy. _Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. _Jason, Leo, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, and herself. _To storm or fire, the world shall fall. _Storm or fire. Jason, Percy, or Leo. Though she supposed it didn't have to be a half-blood. _An oath to keep with a final breath. _Whose final breath? Hopefully not one of the Seven. _And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. _Yep, been there, done that. They had already closed the doors. Eventually, Hazel fell into a fitful sleep. Unfortunately, only dreams awaited her.

_Hazel was standing in a dark room. She heard two voices talking. One deep, and the other female._

"_I have created a special spell fitting your needs," said the deep voice._

"_Good. Wait until the right time to use it. You understand what to do with it?" said the female voice._

"_Yes. I am supposed to lure one of the Seven and use it on them."_

"_That is correct." The female voice hissed with pleasure. "Choose someone valuable. Like one of the sons of the Big Three, for instance."_

"_I understand," said the deep voice. Hazel peered into the gloom, trying to see who was speaking. This was not good. The spell probably didn't do anything benefiting the demigods' health._

"_Wait. I sense a demigod presence in this room." The deep voice snarled. "There she is." A bolt of energy appeared out of nowhere, and the dream disappeared in a flash of smoke and light._

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**Sorry this chapter was so short and didn't have any action. Don't worry, the next will have some fighting in it! Please review!**


	3. Chapter III: Percy

**Hope you guys like this chapter!**

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"Look at how polluted the ocean is. Mortals really need to take better care of the ocean," Percy said to Annabeth in the evening. "Makes me feel kind of dirty."

Annabeth laughed. "Perhaps you could teach them." They were leaning against the rail, watching the Argo II sail over the sea. Percy slipped his hand into Annabeth's.

Leo came over. "We're going to need to stop soon. Festus says that there's another engine busted, and we don't have the supplies to fix it."

"Okay. When are we going to stop?" Annabeth asked.

"The closest city near here is Preveza. We'll stop there for the night and get our supplies in the morning," Leo replied.

"Are you sure we should stop? The giants probably have every monster on their employee list looking for us. They might attack if we stop," said Percy worriedly. "Actually, I'm surprised that the only attack we've had so far is the harpies."

"I'm sure," said Leo a little stiffly. Leo had seemed kind of cold to him, Percy had noticed lately. He briefly wondered why, then dismissed the thought.

"Well, I'm going to go to the kitchen and eat dinner," Percy said. Annabeth followed him down. Some of the crew were already there. Hazel was talking with Frank, but Percy noted that she looked a bit concerned. Piper was there too, as was Jason, now looking a lot better..

After Leo had arrived, Leo told the others of his plan to stop in Preveza and get supplies.

"What items do you need?" Jason asked.

"We should stock up on more food, and it would be nice if we could find some ambrosia, nectar, and maybe some more weapons. But I need more iron and some more tar. Also, I'm going to get some tools to fix the busted engine."

"I'll go get the food with Frank," Hazel volunteered.

"Jason and I will see if we can find some magical items, Celestial Bronze, or ambrosia," Piper said.

"Annabeth and I will get the iron and tar," Percy said.

"Okay, glad that all that is sorted out. But I've got some bad news," Hazel stood up. She explained her dream to the crew. "One of Gaea's allies has created some sort of spell to use against us. We're going to have to be careful. I'm not sure what the spell does."

Annabeth fingered her chin thoughtfully. "But they said that it would be used on a valuable person? Like Jason or Percy?" Percy wasn't particularly happy about that.

Hazel nodded. "Not sure why they said that. They found me before they said more."

"Do you know who they were?" Percy asked. That could help tremendously. It would certainly be easier to avoid whoever it was.

Hazel shook her head. "It was too dark to see anything."

"We can talk more about this tomorrow. Right now, I've got to inspect the damage to the engine to see what else I need. I also need to dock the ship." Leo pushed his chair back and got up, followed by Hazel and Frank.

"Well, since everybody's leaving, I suppose I'll go to my room and try to sleep again," Annabeth said.

Percy and Annabeth left together. "What do you think about Hazel's dream?" Percy asked Annabeth.

"I think that you need to be careful. I don't want to lose you," Annabeth kissed him. "Good night."

"Good night," They went into their respective rooms. Percy sat on his bed and watched as the ship sailed near Preveza. He thought about Damasen and Bob. Hopefully they were all right. Percy owed both of them his life.

Then Percy thought about the _arai, _and one curse in particular. Had Calypso really cursed him? Okay, maybe he had left her, but he had had to stop Kronos. _But you didn't make sure that the gods freed her from her island, _said a voice in his head.

_Shut up, _he replied. Despite what Calypso had said, Percy still thought that maybe it was possible to return to Ogygia.

Percy eventually fell asleep, hoping for no dreams, but that apparently was impossible for him.

_First, Percy heard the voices. "Have you found out the location of the crystal?" asked the first voice._

"_Yes. It is here. We must retrieve it before the demigods discover its existence and find it. If they do, they could use it to stop us from waking Gaea," said a second voice. The landscape around Percy lightened considerably, and he saw that he was standing in the mouth of a tunnel dug deep in the side of a mountain. Percy looked around, taking in his surroundings and filing it away for later use so they could find this crystal the voices were talking about._

"_You must retrieve it soon. The demigods are near this location, and will arrive within a day or two," said the first voice. Despite the light, Percy couldn't find the source of the voices. _

"_Do not worry. I will get it. But first, there is something else I have to do." The voices started to get softer, and Percy's surroundings faded to black._

He woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his door.

"Percy?" It was Annabeth. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah. I am now," Percy sat up groggily.

"Sorry, but we're going to go get the supplies soon. You'd better hurry." Annabeth left.

Percy dressed, stuffed Riptide in his pocket, and then went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Annabeth was waiting for him.

"Come on, Seaweed Brain. We're going to leave Preveza at one o' clock." Annabeth tapped her foot impatiently.

Percy finished off his croissant. "Okay, I'm ready." Leo, Frank, Hazel, Annabeth, and Percy got off the boat and found themselves in the streets of Greece.

"Okay…I guess Frank and I will head that way," Hazel pointed to a market nearby, and soon they disappeared in the crowd.

"Where do you find iron and tar here?" Percy asked Annabeth.

"No idea. I guess we'll just have to explore." They started to wander the streets. After visiting dozens of stores, they finally found a store that sold tar. They bought some of that, and they got some iron from a store next to that.

"Why don't we find a place to eat lunch here?" Annabeth waved her hand at the street they were in. It was littered with restaurants and cafes.

"How about that one?" Percy pointed to a café that sold American food, like cheeseburgers.

"Really, Percy. Here we are in Greece, ancient land of the gods, and you want to eat American food we can get back at home?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

Percy smiled. "Yep."

Annabeth shook her head in exasperation. "Fine."

They sat down and looked at the menu. "I had a dream last night that might help us defeat the giants," Percy remembered.

"How?" Annabeth asked. Percy explained his dream to her.

"Hm…" Annabeth thought for a moment.

Before Annabeth could reply, they heard screaming coming from the direction of the port where they had docked. Mortals were running away from the dock and panicking in general.

Percy sighed. "How much you want to bet it's some monster who wants to interrupt our nice lunch?" They drew their weapons and ran in the direction of the screaming.

At the dock, Percy could see a Hydra terrorizing the people there. Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank were already there. Jason chopped off one of the heads, and two heads grew back from the stump.

"Jason! Don't cut the head off! Burn it!" Annabeth yelled.

Jason looked her way and shouted, "There isn't anything flammable nearby! People try not to set their ships on fire, remember?"

"I wish Leo was here," Percy muttered. "Where could he be?" Just then, the Hydra looked their way and spit poison. Percy narrowly avoided it. Percy looked desperately around for something he could set on fire. There was nothing. All he saw were mortals running away and some shops. He absently wondered what the mortals saw. Maybe a giant reptile?

"Percy! Watch out!" someone screamed. Percy looked up just in time to see a Hydra head coming toward him. Just as it reached him, he jumped in the air and landed on top of the head.

Percy tried to hang on to the thrashing head, but he could feel himself slipping. With one last jerk, he flew off the Hydra head, skidded across the dock, and splashed into the polluted sea.

"Yuck." Percy was grossed out. "This water is disgusting!" Then he saw Leo running towards them.

"Leo! Burn the heads off!" Percy heard Jason yelling to Leo as he climbed out of the dirty water.

"I'll need a distraction!" Leo shouted. "Can you guys do your storm thing?"

Percy and Jason stood back to back. Together, they raised their arms, and Percy summoned the water. Soon, they had a hurricane going. The Hydra roared and focused on them.

"Try not to extinguish the fire!" Leo yelled. Percy reduced the rain. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Leo setting fire to the stumps of the heads he had cut off.

Soon, all that was left of the Hydra was a pile of dust. Percy and Jason stopped the storm. Leo said, "Thanks for the diversion."

"No problem," Percy gave him a tired smile. "Did you get the supplies you needed?"

"Yeah. You?" Leo asked.

"The tar and iron," Percy said. Hazel, Frank, Piper, and Annabeth came over.

"So now that everybody's got their supplies, I think we should leave as soon as possible, before any more monster attacks," Annabeth said. They climbed the ramp up to the ship. Leo started up the ship, and they took off.

Percy retired to his bedroom, exhausted. Someone knocked on his door. "Come in," he called out.

Annabeth entered, a computer tucked under one arm. "Hey," she smiled. "How are you?"

"Tired. Summoning a storm takes a lot of energy."

"I can tell." Annabeth sat next to him on his bed. "Do you want me to get you something to eat?"

"No, it's fine. I'll eat later," Percy said. Right now, all he wanted to do was sleep.

Annabeth seemed to read his mind. "Do you want me to go….?"

"It's all right. You can stay if you want."

Annabeth sat at his desk, where she set down the computer she had brought. "Mind if I work on this?"

Percy yawned. "Okay. You can do that while I sleep, if you want to stay."

"Just don't drool." Annabeth's attention was already on the computer. Percy fell asleep to the sound of Annabeth typing.

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**Hopefully, I'll get another chapter up by tomorrow. Please review!**


	4. Chapter IV: Leo

**Enjoy!**

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Leo twirled the Wii remote. The ship blasted away from the dock. He steered the ship out of the bay, into the sea. He noticed Piper was sitting on a crate marked: DANGEROUS EXPLOSIVES. DO NOT SIT ON. Jason was talking to her, gesturing with his hands.

Leo decided that they would fly for the next part of the ship. He repeatedly pressed A on the Wii remote. The ship rose out of the water, dripping wet. Once Leo deemed the ship high enough, he took out the Xbox controller and pushed the joystick around. He was changing the ship's protection system from sonar to radar. After the Shrimpzilla incident, he was not making the same mistake again.

"Okay Festus. Which engine is broken?" Leo asked the dragon. _Creeak._

"Got it." He left the helm and went over to where Piper and Jason were. "I put the ship on autopilot. I have to go down and fix the broken engine again. Are you guys fine up here?"

"Yeah. You go ahead," Piper said. Leo went downstairs to the engine room. He pulled out a screwdriver and wrench from his tool belt and some other supplies from the things he had bought in Preveza, and he went to work.

Half and hour later, he was done. He put away his tools and got out the crystal from Calypso's cave, as well as the astrolabe he had taken from the dwarves. Leo still had to figure out how to put the two items together as a navigation device to lead him to Ogygia. He had made a promise to Calypso, after all, and he fully intended to keep it. He believed that it was possible to return there. He just had to figure out how.

He was still slightly angry at Percy for leaving her behind like that. But then again, he supposed he had no right to be angry, considering he had pretty much done the same thing. He hadn't quite gotten up the nerve to ask Percy about it; he wasn't sure if he ever would.

Time passed quickly. Festus rang the dinner bell. He rolled up the blueprint, put it away, and went to the mess hall. Everybody else was already there. Leo sat next to Jason and Hazel.

"Right. So according to my estimates, we'll be at Athens in about five days. We still don't quite have a plan yet, other than improvising. Any ideas?" Leo asked the group.

"Maybe once we get to Athens, we'll have more of an idea," said Frank.

"I figure basically, we'll need to defeat Porphyrion, seeing as he's the king of the giants. But we're going to need the help of a god to do that. The gods haven't exactly been willing to help so far," Jason said. "Besides, they're still stuck with that multi-personality disorder thing."

"We'll find a way," Piper said simply.

"I hope so," Leo muttered.

"Well, I had a dream that might help," Percy said. He explained his dream.

"Do you know the location of this cave?" asked Piper.

"According to the voices, it's somewhere near here. I know what the mountain looks like. It's near the ocean, and in the distance I could see a highway over the ocean, connecting an island to the mainland."

Leo frowned, trying to remember that map he had been looking at before. "That must've been Highway 42, which connects the island Lefkada to the mainland Greece. It's a little way down the coast from here. The giant was right; we'll reach there in a day or so."

"Do you have any idea of what the crystal does or how we can retrieve it?" asked Annabeth.

"No, all I know is that it's probably inside that tunnel I saw," Percy said.

"Percy, Leo, and I can go and get the crystal. The rest of you should stay and guard the ship," Jason said.

"All right. Where should I set the ship's destination to?" Leo asked.

"Probably somewhere near the highway," said Frank.

"Got it," Leo said as he got up and left. He trudged down the hallway and up the staircase. As soon as he got to the top deck, he said, "Hey, Festus, can you set the ship's destination to somewhere near Highway 42?" Festus blew out a stream of smoke, which Leo took to mean yes. "Thanks."

He figured he might as well sleep until they arrived. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, trying to figure out a way to Ogygia without asking Percy for help.

Despite being exhausted, it took Leo a while before he finally dropped off to sleep

The next morning, they had arrived at their destination ahead of schedule. Percy and Jason were standing near the railing, looking at the coastline. Leo joined them.

"So, have you figured out which mountain hides the treasure?" Leo asked.

"As far as I can tell, it's one of those," Percy pointed to a trio of mountains slightly down the coastline.

"I think it's the big one nearest to us," Jason added. "It can't be the other one, or else that big mountain would've blocked the view of the highway."

"The big one it is," Leo nodded approvingly. "Just makes it all the harder to climb."

The ship flew in and landed lightly near the chosen mountain. "Time to go," said Percy. The rest of the crew gathered near them. Jason was talking quietly with Piper.

"Are you sure you don't need someone else to go with you?" Hazel asked worriedly. "What if there are giants or something there?"

"What you don't trust us?" Leo joked, pretending to be hurt by her words. Hazel smiled.

"You need a girl in your group, because none of you have any common sense," Annabeth teased.

"Ah, we'll be fine," Leo said breezily. Percy kissed Annabeth.

"Come on, Jason!" Percy called. They waved good-bye and walked onshore.

"You were right, Jason." Percy pointed to a hole clearly visible about one-third of the way up the side of the big mountain.

"We'd better get there as soon as possible," Leo said. The trio set off for the mountain.

Leo trudged up the steep slope. "It may be big, but at least it isn't as hard to climb as Mount Diablo in San Francisco."

"That's actually surprising," Jason commented. "You'd think that Gaea would try even harder to stop us from getting that mysterious crystal."

"You think it's a trap?" Percy asked him.

"We'll just have to very cautious," Jason said. After another hour of long, hard climbing, they finally reached a ledge under the large tunnel mouth.

"Okay, who wants to go first and scout for monsters?" Percy asked. Jason and Percy both looked at Leo.

"Wait what? Not me. I didn't volunteer," Leo backed away.

"Please?" Jason pleaded. "You can use your fire to light the way."

Leo hesitated, then grumbled. "Fine. But next time, you guys are going first." _Geez, _Leo thought. _Just because they're the big famous sons of the Big Three and I'm not, I have to do all the dirty work._

He sneaked up to the tunnel mouth and peered in. "I don't see or hear anything suspicious." He lit a fireball and threw it down the tunnel. No monsters suddenly appeared. "Nothing. It's all clear."

Percy and Jason joined him. "Well that's a relief," said Percy. "Light the way."

Leo lit his hand up and entered the dark tunnel.

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**Please, please review!**


	5. Chapter V:Jason

**Took me a little while to decide what to do next, but here's the next chapter!**

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A little way into the tunnel, there was barely any light left to illuminate the way, even with Leo's blazing hand. Odd formations of rocks decorated the walls and ceiling of the cave, though the floor was smooth, and the path was straight, a clear sign that it was not naturally made.

The path seemed to go on forever, which gave Jason plenty of time to think about the potion in Hazel's dream. Then he realized something that almost made him stop. _The sons of the Big Three..._Both of the sons of the Big Three were currently together in this dark tunnel. What if it was a trap? Jason didn't think that the giants would be reckless enough to accidently allow one of them to learn about the crystal.

Then Jason's thoughts turned to his companions. Leo had been kind of withdrawn and closed ever since Khione had blown him off the ship, like he was heartbroken or something. Obviously, he had met a girl he liked (which didn't help much, since Leo liked a lot of girls), and either the girl hadn't liked him back or he had had to leave her behind to return to the Argo II. Leo had refused to discuss what had happened, and all Jason knew was that Leo had gotten a magical fireproof pouch for Frank.

Percy, on the other hand, was a lot more serious and quiet. Despite that, he and Jason had been getting along quite well, at least better than when they had first met. Jason thought that Percy was a good leader and was well admired by the rest of the crew.

Eventually, Jason saw a faint blue glow at the far end of the tunnel. "What do you think that light is?

Percy squinted. "Looks like...water."

When they reached the blue glow, now more of a glittering turquoise shine, Jason saw a large room with a fountain was elaborately carved. There was a tunnel on the other side of the room, and Jason hoped nothing dangerous came out of it.

Percy shuddered. "That figurine at the top of the fountain looks like the statue on the head of the boat _Princess Andromeda_. Not exactly the most reassuring sight."

"The what boat?" Leo asked.

"Never mind. It was before you arrived at Camp Half-Blood, during the Second Titan War."

Jason walked over to the side of the fountain and looked in. The water did seem to be the source of the glow, and there were a pile of coins at the bottom, so Jason assumed it had once been a wishing fountain.

"Look. There's the jewel we were looking for." Percy and Leo were now by Jason's side. A large multicolored crystal was at the bottom of the pile of coins. As Jason reached in to grab it, Percy stopped him.

"You don't feel it?" Percy asked. Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Feel what?" he asked.

"You know...That sense of evil lurking in the water?" Percy tried to explain. Leo shook his head.

"Bro, I have no idea what you're talking about. Let's just grab the crystal and go. I don't know about the water, but this place gives me the creeps."

"Well, then you should let me do it. I might be able to figure out why the water is like that," Percy said.

"Go ahead," Jason said, glancing warily around. He agreed with Leo. The place just didn't feel...right. "We should get back as soon as possible."

Percy hesitantly reached a hand into the water. Jason saw his fingers closed around the jewel, and immediately, Jason saw that something was wrong.

The crystal began to glow with a soft light, but the water darkened and started to swirl. Percy quickly pulled his hand out. But the crystal seemed to have absorbed some of the water and was now glowing a much darker color. In fact, the crystal was now a dark greenish-black.

"What's going on?" Jason leaped back from the fountain. Percy tried to put the crystal in his pocket, but to his dismay, the crystal seemed stuck to his hand.

"Uh, a little help here?" Percy asked. Leo ran over and began to pull at the jewel.

"Geez, that's stuck pretty tight. I can't seem to budge it." Leo grunted.

Jason looked up at the tunnel on the other side of the room. "Um, guys, I think we've got a bigger problem," Jason said, taking a step back. The large, shadowed outline of a giant filled the mouth of the the other tunnel.

With one last tug, Leo pulled off the crystal, and it flew across the room, directly into the giant's waiting palm.

"Hmm...It seems that it has chosen." The giant examined the crystal and then pocketed it. Jason winced as the giant spoke. His voice was deep and caused a prick of pain with every word.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing! That's ours!" Leo stepped forward defiantly.

"Is that so?" the giant raised an eyebrow, amused. Percy drew Riptide and stepped forward as well.

"Yeah, that is, Meat-Face. I don't know why you're here, but we claimed that first," Percy said.

"Well then. I hate to disappoint you, but that crystal was in my possession long before I put it into the fountain." The giant chuckled.

"You placed it there? You sent that dream to Percy on purpose? This was all just a trap to lure us into this cave?" Jason asked furiously. He wasn't sure if he was mad at the giant or at himself for letting them fall into the trap so easily.

"Well, not all of you. Not that scrawny little runt of a demigod over there." Leo uttered a sound of protest. "I only needed one. But no matter."

"Whoa, stop right there. Did you just call me a scrawny little runt? You're going to have to pay for that," Leo said angrily. "You are so dead." Percy put a hand on Leo's arm.

"Let us deal with him. You don't have a weapon right now."

"Yeah, a screwdriver won't do the trick," Jason drew his sword as well. The two of them faced the giant.

"Which giant is he? I don't recognize him," Jason whispered to Percy.

"I don't either," Percy chewed his lip thoughtfully. "If only Annabeth was here."

"Hmm, two demigods? Is that all? I guess I'll have to inform you that you'll need the help of a god to defeat me, and the gods are a little...indisposed right now," said the giant leisurely.

Jason ground his teeth in frustration. The giant was right. How would they defeat him? Suddenly, Jason started feeling a little nauseous and sick.

But before Jason could do anything, the giant yawned. "Well, enough talk. You're starting to bore me. It's time I got what I came for."

The giant advanced, but Jason stood his ground, sword pointed out in front of him. "And what exactly did you come for?"

"Well, you'll find out soon enough, won't you?" The giant opened his robe and took out a small vial. He took off the cork stoppering the vial, and immediately, the thick gray smoke inside the tube swirled out towards the demigods.

"That doesn't look like it would really help our health, so we're just going to go now," Leo said nervously heading back towards the tunnel. "Come on, you guys."

Jason backed away from the mist, but it just kept on coming. Percy was still standing there. "Percy? Are you coming?"

"We won't make it in time." Percy sounded completely sure of that. "You guys go back and alert the others. I'll um…fight the mist?"

"I see we have the right choice," the giant said, picking out dirt underneath his fingernails. "It's only a matter of time."

Jason didn't have time to ponder the giant's words. The fog was rolling closer. "Come on, Percy. We can't leave you behind. What would Annabeth say?" Jason pleaded. Percy hesitated. But it was too late. Much too late.

Jason stared in horror as he saw the smoke envelope Percy. Who knew what it would do? "PERCY!" he yelled.

"Come on, we have to leave, otherwise the mist will reach us too. I don't want to leave him behind either, but some of us have to alert the others." Leo tugged on Jason's shirt. But as it turned out, they didn't need to leave. The mist cleared, and Jason saw that the room was now empty. No fountain. No giant. No Percy. Only Percy's sword was left on the ground.

"Where did he go? Where did Percy go? Annabeth's going to kill me," Jason muttered. He ran into the room and picked up Riptide. "Percy? Percy!"

"Maybe down the other tunnel?" Leo suggested. But as Jason turned towards it, a large rock slid down in front of the opening, unseen before because it had looked like a normal rock outcropping.

Jason stood there in dismay. What were they going to do? Percy had disappeared, and they couldn't just leave him behind like that.

Jason became dimly aware that Leo was shaking him. "We have to leave. It's our only option, and our only hope of finding Percy."

Leo headed towards the tunnel the had entered through, and with no choice left, Jason followed, taking one last glance at the cave where Percy had disappeared.

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**Oh no! *gasp* What will happen to Percy?**

**I need some ideas for the next chapter so please suggest some!**


	6. Author's Note

**Hi guys**

**Sorry for not putting up a real chapter, but I was wondering if I should continue this story or not. I haven't got that many reviews yet, and I need some more ideas for the next chapters until they reach Athens. So if you want me to continue, please suggest some ideas and review!**

**Thanks,**

**Firestar1218**


	7. Chapter VI: Frank

**I decided to continue this story, thanks to the reviews of ****_ClaraoftheSea_****, ****_summergirl012_****, ****_Guest_****, and ****_a guest_****. Special thanks to ****_DarkSilver_**** and ****_Guest_**** for reviewing even before the Author's Note, as well as ****_a guest_****, who was the only one out of all the reviewers to actually suggest some ideas for future chapters. Waiting for reviews was part of the reason this chapter took so long, but most of it was because I had an idea in mind, but wasn't sure how to write it. Again, thanks to all the reviewers!**

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Frank and Hazel were watching Annabeth pace the deck. "Where are they? They should've returned by now. It doesn't take that long to get a crystal," Annabeth muttered worriedly.

Suddenly, Piper shouted, "I see them! There they are!"

Frank squinted. He could dimly make out some shapes moving towards them. "But why are there only two of them?"

Annabeth was silent, but as the figures got nearer, she gasped in horror. "Percy's not with them! Where did he go?"

Jason and Leo boarded the ship, Jason looking miserable and downcast, Leo helping him along.

"What happened?" Hazel asked, a frown creasing her forehead.

Jason was silent. Leo spoke up for him. "We...don't exactly know..."

Frank raised an eyebrow. "How can you not know? You guys were supposed to stick together."

"Well…" Leo told them the whole story. "So we had to leave, but we found his sword on the ground." Leo held it up. Annabeth was stock-still, gaping at Leo.

"Oh no. That's very bad. You know what it means, right?" Hazel started to pace. "It means that the giants only need one more female demigod to raise Gaea. We have to be very cautious from now on."

Annabeth managed to choke out a sentence. "Percy's...gone?"

Piper put a consoling arm around Annabeth and led her away so they could talk.

Frank was dumbstruck as well. Percy? His second-ever friend since he had arrived at Camp Jupiter? The demigod he admired most? No. It couldn't be happening.

Jason had sat down with his face in his hands. "It's all my fault. I could've convinced him to leave."  
"Jason, that's not true," Hazel said gently to him. "But you can't dwell on the past. You couldn't have done anything. It was Percy's choice to stay behind and protect you guys; you couldn't have done anything. Your best option was to leave, or you probably would've died."

"I know," Jason said despondently. "But I can't help but think that if I had done something different, maybe things would have turned out differently. I was supposed to be a leader. I shouldn't have left him behind."

"Um, guys, I really think we should go. Like maybe before those monsters over there come here and attack us?" Leo said. Frank looked up and saw an army of telekhines and empousai heading their way.

"Oh. Yeah, that'd be a good idea," Frank said. "Better hurry before those monsters reach us." Leo ran to the helm and started punching some buttons.

"I need more time to start up the ship! Can you guys distract them?" Leo yelled.

Frank took an arrow from his quiver and drew his bow back. _Thwack! _The arrow hit a empousai right in the middle of its eyes.

As Frank continued to shoot more arrows, Hazel asked Leo, "How much more time do you need?"

"Just another minute." Leo's hands were flying over the controls. Jason summoned some lightning and blasted a whole group of telekhines into the air. Festus helped by spewing fire at the monster army.

Hazel concentrated hard and a mirror image of the Argo II wavered into view, some distance away from the real ship. The monster army paused, and they ran towards the fake ship.

"Nice job, Hazel," Frank said. "You're getting good at this."

"We're invisible to them. For now," Hazel said. "Better hurry, Leo, before they realize the other ship is fake."

"Almost got it," Leo said. "There!"

The ship rose into the air, water dripping from its sides. The mirage ship rippled and then faded from view. The monster army stopped and milled around in confusion. Then an empousai spotted the real Argo II and led the army to a spot below the ship. They were now throwing spears and rocks at them, but had no effect on the ship.

Frank peered over the side of the railing and jerked back. A spear flew by the space where his head had just been. "That was a close one."

He turned around and saw that Piper was leading Annabeth downstairs, and Jason was following. Frank went back to Hazel. "So...How's Annabeth feeling?"

"I don't know. Piper just said that Annabeth was crying and needed some rest. She's probably feeling absolutely miserable, though. First he disappeared from Camp Half-Blood for six months, then they fell into Tartarus, and now who knows what happened to him?"

"Yeah… I hope he's all right."

Hazel nudged him. "You stay safe, okay?"

Frank laughed. "I should say the same to you. The giants just need the blood of a female demigod, so you're the one who's going to have to be careful."

Leo joined them. "I called a meeting in the mess hall to discuss Percy's disappearance. I don't think Annabeth's going to be there, which is understandable."

They headed downstairs to the mess hall. Jason and Piper were already there, having a heated conversation with lots of hand gestures. They stopped when they saw that the trio had arrived.

Frank sat down. "Well...now what?"

"I think the first thing we should do is try to figure out the identity of the giant so we have a better idea of what happened to Percy. That mist thing was obviously the potion in my dream," Hazel said.  
"All I know was that the giant was dark and mysterious. He kept himself hidden in the shadows." Leo leaned back in his chair. "Besides, I don't know the names of any other giants."

"Yeah, it was hard to see his face. But his words cause pain," Jason remembered.

"What kind of giant is that?" Leo scoffed. "Giant of painful words? It's not like there's a god of non-painful words."

"It could be a goddess," Frank suggested.

"Okay, or goddess," Leo amended. "That's still not helpful."

"I think that first we need more info on this giant," Piper said. "There's no way we can figure out his name if you guys hardly even saw him. What about the potion? Was its only purpose was to make Percy disappear?"

"As far as I could tell, yes, but it could have done something else," Jason said. "It didn't take his sword, though, for whatever reason."

"He probably just dropped it or something, so the mist didn't take it," said Frank half-heartedly. "At least it's something."

"Are we headed straight to Athens?" Piper asked Leo.

"Yeah, unless you guys want to stop somewhere along the way," Leo said. "

Jason shook his head. "No. We can't. We're running out of time, and I think that the most likely location where Percy will be is at Athens, because that's where the giants intend to awake Gaea."

"Okay, then we'll be there in a few more days since we're already at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras. I've been pushing the ship as fast as it can go."

"So our to-do list would be to go to Athens, find Percy, stop the giants from raising Gaea, and defeat them. Oh, and try not to die," Frank said.

Leo whistled. "Pretty hefty."

"Yeah, and we all have to be careful, because like Hazel said, the giants are one demigod away from waking Gaea," Piper said.  
"Okay, then." Jason looked around at them. "I guess the meeting is adjourned." Frank and Hazel left together.

"You know, for some reason I always feel like we're going around in circles whenever there's a meeting," Frank commented. "We don't get much done."

Hazel smiled. "Maybe it's because there isn't anything to be done until we reach Athens."

"True," Frank conceded. "Do you want to go to the armory? I have to get some more arrows."

"Sure." They walked down to the lower level of the ship and entered the armory. Frank went to the archery section and picked out some magic arrows, along with normal ones. Hazel was wandering around the cavalry section, which was pretty small.

"You miss Arion, don't you?" Frank asked her.

"Yeah," Hazel sighed. "I prefer riding him than sailing on the boat, but traveling by land is not good." They left the armory and went to Frank's room, where he deposited the arrows in his quiver.

"You're doing pretty well with the Mist thing," Frank said.

"Yeah, I've been practicing," Hazel said nonchalantly.

Frank raised his eyebrows. "On what?"

"Oh you know...Just normal things like pencils and apples and chairs...and the occasional person."

"Was it some poor mortal who didn't even know what had happened to him?" Frank inquired.

Hazel laughed. "Well...maybe. Don't worry, he didn't even notice.

Suddenly a voice from behind them said, "Hello? Can you guys hear me?"

Frank whirled around and saw that the voice had belonged to Reyna, who was Iris-messaging them. Behind her, Frank could see Nico sleeping on the ground, leaning against a column.

"Reyna!" Frank said. "How's it going with the Athena statue thingy?"

"Lots of monster attacks. Right now, we're in Barcelona, Spain. Nico's resting. He's exhausted after all that shadow-traveling, and I've been taking care of all the monsters. We have to make a huge jump over the Atlantic Ocean. Do you guys know where Percy is? I tried to Iris-message him, but nothing happened. I thought maybe that I did something wrong, because this is mostly a Greek thing."

"Um…" Hazel looked at Frank helplessly. "He's not here at the moment."

Reyna frowned. "Well tell him that Octavian plans to attack Camp Half-Blood soon. We managed to Iris-message Chiron to let him know we were coming, and he told us to hurry."

"Um, yeah sure we'll tell him," Frank mumbled.

"He also said to tell Annabeth that they were going to try to use Daedelus's plan twenty-three again to defend Camp Half-Blood. Whatever that is."

"Okay. Got it," Hazel said. "Any other news?"

"No. How's your quest going?" Reyna asked.

"We'll be at Athens in a few days," Frank said. Suddenly, he heard something hissing in the background. Reyna glanced to the right.

"I have to go and kill this monster here." She blew the hair out of her face. "I'll talk to you later." She slashed her blade through the rainbow and it dissolved.

"I guess we'd better go tell Annabeth what she said." Hazel turned around and headed for the door. Frank the corridor, they bumped into Piper.

"Is Annabeth still in her room?" Frank asked.

Piper shrugged. "I'm not sure. She probably is, though. I'll come by once I grab Katoptris."

Hazel nodded. "Thanks." They continued on towards Annabeth's room. Frank knocked on the door.

"Annabeth? Are you in there?" Frank asked tentatively. He heard her moving around and the sound of something falling. Then he heard her cursing in Ancient Greek.

"Um...Is now not a good time? Should we come back later?" suggested Hazel worriedly.

This time Annabeth replied. "No, it's all right." She opened the door. Frank saw that she had been crying and her hair was a mess. He felt uncomfortable.

"We came to tell you that we got an Iris-message from Reyna," Hazel said. She told her what had happened.

"And she said to tell you that Camp Half-Blood is going to try to use Daedelus's plan twenty-three again to defend the camp," Frank finished. "I assume you know what she's talking about?"

Annabeth nodded and leaned against the doorframe. "It's a dangerous plan. They might malfunction." She frowned. "Also, the demigods in Camp Jupiter might be seriously harmed."

"Who's 'they'?" asked Frank nervously.

"The automatons. We used them to defend Olympus during the Second Titan War," Annabeth explained. Frank gulped.

"Have they malfunctioned before?" asked Hazel.

"There weren't any major problems before," said Annabeth. "But there's a bigger chance this time because they've already been used once."

"I won't mind if Octavian dies, but everyone else...well, they're just following his orders. Hey, maybe you should ask Camp Half-Blood to specifically order the automatons to attack Octavian!" Frank suggested excitedly.

Hazel punched him lightly on the arm. "Frank!" she scolded, but Frank could see that she was trying not to laugh.

"Hey!" Piper called from down the hallway, coming towards them. "I've got news." From her expression, Frank couldn't tell if it was good or bad. It seemed like a little bit of both.

"I have news about Percy," Piper repeated.

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**I tried to make this chapter longer, because the 2nd-5th chapters all seemed to be a lot shorter than the first one. Hope you enjoyed it! Please review!**


	8. Chapter VII: Piper

**I updated the earlier chapters because I just finished reading the House of Hades again for like the fourth time, and I realized I was missing some information. Plus I realized I needed to edit it again. Don't worry, the changes were nothing big, so the plot is still the same. Just changed some dialogue and details and fixed some errors, so you don't need to go back and read it again, unless you want to. Hope you guys are having a fun summer!**

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The four of them all sat around in a circle in Annabeth's room, waiting to hear what Piper had to say. Annabeth was desperate for information, which was why they had decided they would tell Jason and Leo later. Piper was troubled, because she couldn't make out what she had seen in her blade. It was hard to see anything near the end, which made her think that Gaea or her giants had been somehow trying to block the signal or whatever her dagger used to show these visions. The things she had seen didn't look too good.

"So?" Annabeth prompted. Piper came to a start, realizing that she had been lost in thought for some time now.

"I saw Percy in Katoptris," Piper said. After talking to Frank and Hazel in the hallway, she had gone to her room to get her dagger. When she had picked it up, the surface of the blade had seemed to ripple, and images had appeared on it.

Annabeth nodded. "I guessed that. What was he doing? Was there anyone with him?"

"The first vision showed him on a bed in a room that was probably underground. It looked like he was either unconscious or sleeping, but he was really pale and shivering. Then it changed to some giants or monsters talking about some kind of experiment and a surprise for us." Piper frowned. "That's probably not a good thing." She figured that any surprise from the giants was designed to kill them.

"Probably some more extra-nasty monsters," Hazel said. "Maybe they're breeding some kind of hybrid monster as an experiment."

"Regular monsters are bad enough. We don't need to deal with a combination of a empousai and a hellhound," Frank said.

"I really didn't need that image in my head," Piper shuddered.

"Can we get back on topic please?" Annabeth said impatiently. "Piper, was there anything else you saw?"

"Yeah. I think the first two images were of the present, but the next one is probably about the future. Percy was standing on a hill that overlooked Athens, and he was wearing armor. I don't know where he got that from."

"Did you see any of us there?" Annabeth asked.

Piper shook her head. "No. But I could just barely see him, because by that time, the blade was fogged over and cloudy, which is unusual. There might have been someone else that was obscured." At that, Annabeth bit her lip.

When Piper didn't say anything else, Frank asked, "Was there any other visions?"

"Nothing important." Piper hesitated, unsure of what to say. She didn't really want to share what she had seen. The other three seemed to read her expression and none of them asked anymore questions about the last vision.

Annabeth started to pace around frustratedly. "But what could that mean? Standing on a hill...at least we know that he'll be near Athens. But there are so many hills around Athens, it'll be impossible to find him."

Piper was quiet. She hated that it was her having to tell Annabeth the news. Besides, that last vision had unsettled her a lot. She kept turning it over in her mind, wondering what it could possibly mean.

Piper stood up and headed for the door. "I'm going to go find Jason."

Annabeth nodded, barely glancing up at her, too preoccupied with the thought of Percy. Piper left and knocked on Jason's door. When he opened it, he smiled at her.

"What are you doing here? Did you come for some company?" asked Jason lightly.

"Actually, I came here to tell you something." Piper told him what she had told Annabeth, Hazel, and Frank, but as before, she didn't say anything about the last vision. When she was done, Jason's expression turned serious.

"Hmm. We'll discuss this as a group later. Was there anything else you saw?" Jason's piercing blue eyes held Piper's kaleidoscope ones. It made her feel as if he knew that she was holding something back from hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not to tell him. "No. There was nothing else," she lied.

Jason didn't look like he believed her, but he didn't press her for details, for which she was grateful. "Okay."

Piper thought about a question that had been haunting her ever since they had started their quest. She didn't want to think about it, but the lines of the prophecy had suggested it.

"What was that?" Jason asked her. Piper looked up, startled. She realized she had mumbled the question out loud, without meaning to.

"I was just asking you a question. I shouldn't have said anything." Piper looked at her feet. Jason put his fingers under her chin and lifted her head up so that he could see her face, but Piper averted her eyes.

"What was the question?" Jason persisted.

Piper swallowed with difficulty. "Do you...do you think all of us are going to come back alive?"

Piper finally lifted her gaze, and Jason's eyes met hers. "I hope so," he replied softly. "I really hope so."

* * *

Piper sat at the table, absently stirring her hot chocolate. It was the morning after her vision, and the crew had been discussing it in heated tones over breakfast. They hadn't come any closer to figuring it out or coming up with a plan. Most of the crew had already left, and only she, Leo, and Annabeth were left.

Out of the corner of her eye, Piper saw Leo shift uncomfortably in his chair. He had been moving uneasily like that ever since it had been just the the three of them in the mess hall. That was not unusual for him, as he was the son of Hephaestus and had a lot of nervous energy, but he seemed more nervous than usual. Annabeth raised her eyebrow at Piper. It was obvious she was thinking, _What is wrong with him?_

Compared to yesterday, Annabeth was looking a lot better than before, though she looked extremely tired and her face was covered with lines of worry. Piper felt sorry for her, losing Percy after all they had been through.

Leo fidgeted again. Piper couldn't stand it anymore. "Okay, Leo. Out with it. What is it you want to say?" she asked him exasperatedly.

Piper knew that when he kept squirming like that, it was because he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if he should say it, if that made any sense.

Leo looked at her, surprised. "What?"

Piper rolled her eyes impatiently. "Come on. You know what I'm talking about. I've known you long enough to know that you want to say something."

"Oh." Leo looked half embarrassed, half nervous. It was clear he had been fidgeting subconsciously. Piper and Annabeth exchanged glances.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted.

Now that Leo had been put on the spotlight, he immediately looked like he wanted to run away and hide. "Umm… It was nothing."

Piper raised her eyebrows. "If it was nothing, you wouldn't be twitching and squirming like that."

He looked slightly abashed at being interrogated by the two girls. "Do you really want to know that badly?"

"It depends on what you want to say. If it's something like 'I like tacos' or something stupid like that, then I'm going to smack you on the head," Annabeth told him. Piper was sure she was telling the truth.

"It's not." Leo looked uncharacteristically solemn and serious. All of his usual macho personality was gone. He glanced at Piper and hesitated. "Piper, can you leave? I need to ask Annabeth something in private." Annabeth looked as surprised and confused as Piper felt. Usually, Leo tended to talk to Jason and Piper the most, since they knew each other best.

"Okay…" Piper got up from her seat and walked to the door, glancing back. Piper gave Annabeth a look that clearly said, _Tell me about it later_. Annabeth mouthed an okay. Piper shut the door behind her, leaving her to wonder what could be possibly be so important that Leo had to tell Annabeth in private.

* * *

**I'm still deciding between a few ideas about Percy's dilemma, but I was just wondering if you guys have any requests for what could happen to Percy. You could leave it as a review, or you can PM me. I might use it or try to incorporate it into the story in some way. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**PS. In case you're wondering, Percy will hopefully make an appearance after a few more chapters, so please submit your request/idea by the time I put up Chapter Nine or Ten. **


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